Morbius

Morbius is a 2022 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name, produced by Columbia Pictures in association with Marvel. Distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing, it is the third film in Sony's Spider-Man Universe (SSU). Directed by Daniel Espinosa and written by Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless, it stars Jared Leto as Dr. Michael Morbius, alongside Matt Smith, Adria Arjona, Jared Harris, Al Madrigal, and Tyrese Gibson. In the film, Morbius and his surrogate brother Milo become living vampires after curing themselves of a rare blood disease.

There were several attempts to bring Morbius to the big screen since 1998, including joining the Blade franchise and having a solo film produced by Artisan Entertainment, neither of which ever came to fruition. After announcing plans for a new shared universe of films inspired by Spider-Man related characters beginning with Venom (2018), Sony began developing a film based on Morbius. Sazama and Sharpless had written a script by November 2017, and Leto and Espinosa officially joined in June 2018. Work on the film began at the end of the year with further casting, ahead of production starting in London in February 2019. Filming was confirmed to have been completed by June 2019, with reshoots happening in Los Angeles the following February.

Morbius premiered at the Plaza Carso in Mexico City on March 10, 2022, and was theatrically released in the United States on April 1, 2022, after being delayed several times from an initial July 2020 date primarily due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The film was a box office bomb, grossing over $163 million worldwide, and received largely negative reviews from critics, with criticism towards its writing, visual effects, and post-credits scenes, though Smith's performance received some praise.